88 



arrive in considerable numbers ; but they soon separate and take 

 up their stations on our fell sides and the moorlands adjoining 

 thereto. 



In the spring of 1865 I was located in the wilds of North Wales 

 when the Ring Ouzels arrived, the male birds first ; and a few 

 days after the females put in an appearance, and in an incredibly 

 short space of time they were paired, and distributed over the 

 mountain sides ; their cheery songs burst from every coign of 

 vantage, and made the valleys ring with their spring roundelay. 

 They love to frequent sequestered gills, and especially where the 

 fell becks dash over the boulders. Unlike his congeners, the 

 Fieldfare and the Redwing, who only winter here, he is the only 

 species of thrush who comes from the "sunny south" to spend the 

 summer with us. This is something unaccountable. Here we 

 have three birds of the same species, whose food is nearly the 

 same, yet two come in autumn and stay with us all the winter, 

 then depart in spring to Sweden and Norway to breed : while 

 another travels from Central Africa to breed in our mountain 

 solitudes. The Ring Ouzel also visits Sweden and Norway ; and 

 Mr. Hewitson, when on a visit to the latter country, for the 

 purpose of studying the habits of the Fieldfare and Redwing, 

 mentions how the most bleak and desolate islands were enlivened 

 with its song : it often delighted him in his midnight visits amongst 

 the islands. 



In my rambles on our fells, I love to see him flitting before me 

 from point to point, and uttering his call note of " tuk — tuk — tuk," 

 and have often been startled by the shrill clarion of the bird, 

 whom you may see perched like a sentinel on some jutting crag, 

 or on some stunted root of a tree, or a small bush, and protesting 

 against your approach. They object most decidedly to your 

 presence upon their preserves, especially when the female is sitting, 

 or when the young are just hatched out. I have seen the male 

 bird fly in circles around us, and at us, until we had removed 

 some distance from the nest. It will also use all sorts of stratagems, 

 feigning to be wounded, and tumbling before one with drooping 

 wings. If you have a dog with you, woe betide it, as the parent 



